Monday, March 2, 2009

Kaali tori Bendi

Kaali tori means Black Toor (Pigeon pea) not the dal but the whole. There are two varieties of pigeon pea the white and black. These cannot be used directly as we use the split pigeon pea or dal. These must be soaked well in advance(overnight) and then pressure cooked until soft. Takes about 3-4 whistles in my Prestige Cooker. The whole Toor tastes slightly different from split ones. We use the split dal for dosa or daalithoy and the whole ones are used in masala gravies. I normally avoid using coconut in my daily cooking but once in a while we do indulge.

Kaali tori bendi is signature dish of my mhaav (Elder aunt). She adds green jackfruit when in season and it is had with steaming hot boiled rice. It tastes equally good even with rice noodles or dosa.

Here is what's needed:

1 cup black Pigeon pea

a small piece of peeled and chopped Potato/ Elephant foot Yam (Suran)(Optional)

1/2 cup grated Coconut

5-6 fried Red chilli

a small marble sized Tamarind

Salt to taste

For seasoning

6-8 Garlic pods

Oil

Procedure:

1) Soak the Pigeon peas overnight and pressure cook along with potato or suran if using until done.

2) Grind grated coconut,red chillis, tamarind and salt with water to smooth paste.

3) Add the ground masala to the boiled peas and give it a rolling boil before switiching it off.

4) Prepare seasoning. Slightly crush the garlic. Heat oil and add the crushed garlic to it and fry until golden. Make sure that each of the garlic is crushed else it may start spluttering. Pour the seasoning over the gravy. Mix and keep covered. The gravy tastes better as time passes by. While serving re-heat and serve hot.

P.S: People who do not prefer garlic can substitute it in the seasoning with mustard seeds and curry leaf. When garlic seasoning is used it is called bendi/koddel and if mustard & curry leaf is used it is called ghashi.

29 comments:

well, like varsha said, even i first thought it was the black chick pea (which we call kadala in malayalam) next time im at the indian store im gonna look for this black pigeon pea...im sure i will love this with all the coconut in it. great recipe, dear :)

I just saw these black beauties for the first time at a specialty Indian store out here. I've never seen them used in my native. That's an interesting recipe you've posted, sounds a little like our erisseri.

The first thing I saw was started singing - "Kaali teri choti hai paranda tera lalni.....mushkil"! Forgive my whacky mind:), but the tale here is another yum one:). I have had this - my husband made it once. Very tasty too:)

We call it KOHAR i guess,coz it do looks same and we make the boiled kohar with Rava halwa,as a prasad to be distributed during Sindhi FestivalsThey surely taste yummm with some tamarind and chopped onions and i am so glad to land upon here,coz now i found one more exciting way to have these peas

Wow...simple and tasty meal. I have tasted tori ghashi and i like tori but never tried my hand at it anytime. Its not a common legume in my house or may be its not easily available in Mumbai. Bendi looks perfect.

I bought this dal from an Indian store recently though I didnt know what to do with that...I was prepraring only a basic curry dish with that...this recipe sounds wonderful... they look great too..thanks for sharing this wonderful dish.